Ilyushin Il-86

Design

Configuration and wing


All-metal low-wing land monoplane with four wing-mounted jet engines.

Cantilever three-spar structure of modified trapezoid planform.

Centre section integral with fuselage. Inboard sections, outboard sections and detachable leading and trailing edges. High-lift devices comprise full-span six-segment leading edge slats (contiguous at engine pylons) at up to 17.5% of chord (drooping to 35°), two-segment fixed-vane double-slotted trailing edge flaps occupying some 75% of the span (deploying to 40°) and five-segment spoilers (outboards used as spoilerons at high speeds, inboards used as lift dumpers on the ground).

Two-segment outboard ailerons for low speed roll control. Boundary layer fences over pylons. Engines suspended from the wing on pylons act as anti-flutter weights.

Trim range is 16-33% of mean aerodynamic chord.

Fuselage


Circular-section structure of frames and stringers with a continuous main deck and lower decks fore and aft of the centre section.

Rectangular windows in most interframe bays, eight ICAO Type 1a passenger doors on the main deck and three more on the lower deck portside; two freight hold doors and a galley supply door on the lower deck starboard.

The main deck houses the flightdeck, two wardrobes, eight toilets, two pantries and a three-section passenger cabin.

The lower deck houses three entry vestibules/luggage stores with hydraulic boarding stairs to ground level and fixed stairs to the main deck, a midships galley linked with the main deck by an electric lift, two freight holds (fore and aft of the passenger facilities), an avionics bay and two technical bays.

The entire accommodation is pressurised and air-conditioned with "earphones for music or on-board cinema."

Empennage


Cantilevered trapezoid planform swept-back surfaces.

Two-segment elevators and rudder.

Tailplane area 96.5 m² (1,039 ft²); incidence adjustable between 2° and 12° by electric motors commanded by yoke trim thumbwheels and console trim wheels.

Fin area 56.06 m² (603.4 ft²).

Landing gear of near-conventional layout, with a twin-wheeled nose leg and three four-wheel bogie main gear legs (centreline and two outers). Track is 9.9 m (/32 ft 5.5 in).

Powerplant


Four Kuznetsov NK-86 two-spool turbofans. Five-stage LP compressors, six-stage HP compressors, annular combustor cans, single-stage HP turbine, two-stage LP turbine.

Cascade thrust reversers canted 15° from the horizontal. Pneumatic starters (airborne relights use the windmill effect).

Forward-facing ejectors blow away detritus during taxi. International Standard Atmosphere hourly fuel consumption per engine is 7.7 t (16,975 lb) at maximum continuous rated thrust, 6 t/13,230 lb at nominal maximum thrust, 5.1 t (11,243 lb) at 85% thrust, 4.2 t/9260 lb at 70%, 3.6 t (7,937 lb) at 60%, 2.45 t (5,400 lb) at 40% and 1 t (2,205 lb) at idle.

Overall hourly fuel consumption at long-range cruise and 190 t (419,000 lb) is 9.75 t (21,495 lb) reducing to 7.79 t (17,174 lb) at 140 t (308,650 lb).

Outboard engine pylons on the latter two-thirds of all Il-86s are marginally extended to cut drag.

A VSU-10 APU generates power and heats/cools the interior on the ground, provides engine start air.

Controls


Hydraulically driven. An SAU-1T-2 automatic flight control system offers assisted manual or automatic flight, with no manual option.

Four independent hydraulic systems power all flight controls and the built-in airstairs. Fluid is to the NGZh, rather than AMG, formula.


Avionics


Pizhma-1 navigational system with Omega inputs. GPS transceivers and TCAS fitted retrospectively during the 1990s. Pizhma-1 can be used throughout the flight from departure terminal area to landing and taxi to stand. Pizhma-1 has full-time roll and yaw dampers.

Airfield approach aids enable instrument landing system coupled approaches to ICAO Category II weather minima.

Other radio aids include VOR and DME receivers, a weather radar and Warsaw Pact identification aids. Cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders standard.

Four GT-40PCh6 engine generators, the APU or ground sources supply 200/115 V, 400 Hz current to the primary system or two secondary systems (36 V/400 Hz AC and 27 V DC). Consumers include high-lift devices, tailplane trim, deicing, galley lift and interior services.

Operational history

An inaugural service from Moscow to Tashkent was flown on December 26, 1980 but services-proper commenced after February 1, 1981.

Aeroflot first operated the Il-86 on peak domestic routes. Foreign services began in June 1981 to Eastern Europe.

Services to larger West European cities began with the winter timetable starting in October that year.

Charter flights to European points followed, with services on high density medium/long range routes within the Soviet Union coming last.

Long-range operations

Though the Il-86 was a medium-range airliner, from 1982 Aeroflot put it into scheduled service from Moscow to Havana via Shannon and Gander, "perhaps with limited payload or with additional tankerage."

Other scheduled long range services flown by the type were to Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Lima, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, all via Sal Island.

Post-Soviet operations

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, national airlines emerged in the 15 successor republics. Il-86s serving with Aeroflot administrations ("Directorates") in these nations accrued to their airlines and many were traded.


From April 2002, the European Union, the USA and much of the rest of the world banned noisier aircraft, including the Il-86.

On October 23, 2006, Aeroflot Deputy Director General Igor Desyatnichenko said that the Il-86 was to be withdrawn from service starting November 15 that year as it operated for just two or three months in the summer."

Unused facilities


The Il-86's "luggage at hand" carry-on luggage facility was rarely used.[78] Vul'fov (ibid.) notes:

"Thank God no civil servant got it into his head to refuse the parallel opportunity offered to passengers of electing to drop their luggage when checking-in at airports. Otherwise, the loading of luggage into the aircraft by passengers would have turned into a proper nightmare lasting hours."

In 1987 Radio Moscow reported that Aeroflot "resisted the change" to a three-person crew.

Vul'fov, A, ibid., reports that the type continued to be operated by four-member crews. Navigators, occupying the observer seat (devoid of instrumentation), stood unsecured on final approach to oversee the pilots’ instruments and read-out indications (despite voice synthesizers being fitted).

Soviet operations of the Tu-154 airliner similarly employed four or five flightdeck crew, despite foreign operators using three-person flightdeck crews.

Military operations

With its built-in stairs and below deck holds, the Il-86 was widely expected to serve in the personnel transport role with the Soviet air forces:

"The wide-bodied Il-86 can perform not only as a troop transport ... but may also in the future form the basis for a command and control aircraft for airborne coordination of Warsaw Pact forces."


In the event, four airframes (c/n 042, 043, 046 and 048, carrying quasi-civil registrations SSSR-86146, '7, '8 and '9) were delivered to the 8th Special Purposes Aviation Division at the Chkalovsky air base near Moscow.

These are variously claimed to be designated Il-80, Il-82, Il-87 or Il-86VKP (Russian: “ВКП” for “воздушный командный пост”; transliterated: "vozdushniy komandnyi post" “veh-kah-peh” and meaning "aerial command post"). This version has the NATO reporting name Maxdome.

Setting records

Setting records was a traditional Soviet way of promoting aviation products[citation needed].

On Tuesday September 22, 1981, an Il-86 flown by Commander G Volokhov and Second Pilot A Tyuryumin set Fédération Aéronautique Internationale records for flying payloads of 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65 tonnes over a 2,000 km closed circuit at an average of 975.3 km per hour.

Two days later, the same crew and machine set FAI records for flying payloads of 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80-tonne payloads over a 1,000 km closed circuit at an average of 962 km/h.

Of these 18 records, one was broken by a Tu-144 in 1983, five were superseded or discontinued and 12 still stood in 2010.

Variants

Undeveloped versions

Only the base version of the Il-86 and a small batch of military derivatives entered service.

Further versions were mooted but none entered service. Freight or combined passenger-freight versions are not known to have been proposed.

A proposed long-range version

On June 26, 1972, a long-range version of the Il-86, the Il-86D (for Russian: "дальний"; transliterated: "dal’niy"; meaning "long-range"), was ordered into development by the Soviet cabinet.

Design was completed in June 1976.

The Il-86D would have had a marginally extended wing span, carried additional fuel, and had a range of some 8,500 km (4,600 nmi). Later announcements stated that a version of the Il-86D with Lotarev D-18 engines had entered development in March 1975.

This version would have had a 147,500 kg (325,000 lb) empty weight, a 300,000 kg/660,000 lb maximum take-off weight, a fuel capacity of some 150,000 kg (330,000 lb), a wing area of 325 m² (5,300 ft²), and a range of 10,200 km (5,500 nmi). It evolved into the Il-96.


A proposed high-capacity version

A "minimum-change" development of the Il-86, stated to have been designated Il-86V, was test-flown on 1 June 1982 and was ready for service by 27 April 1985. It was said to have 450 seats, with the underfloor vestibules fitted with seats and possible changes to main-deck seating.

The version is not known to have entered passenger service but may have been used by the military.


Proposed re-engined versions


In the 1980s, there were moves to fit the Il-86 with RB211-22 engines.

Designated Il-86V (second use of this designation), this would have had a range of over 9,000 km (4,860 nmi) and/or increased payload.

Another 450-seater Il-86V powered by RB211-524G engines was also projected. Amid the disintegration of the Soviet economy, these versions did not progress.

In 1991, there were moves to fit the Il-86 with Franco-American CFM56-5C2 engines.

Finances precluded progress.

In 1995, International Aero Engines offered the V2500 engine to five Il-86 operators with proposals to re-engine 25 aircraft.[96][97] The offer was not taken up.

CFM 56

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